World Cup 2018: The story of a memorable tournament with Opta statistics

A memorable World Cup in Russia is now over but football fans around the globe certainly got their fair share of entertainment and drama, with 169 goals scored across 64 games and just one goalless draw.

Funnily enough one of the teams responsible for that rare borefest were the eventual champions France but they got the pulses racing in their very next match when defeating Argentina 4-3 in one of the many thrillers of the tournament.

One of their standout stars Kylian Mbappe twice emulated the legendary Pele while their manager Didier Deschamps also entered the history books.

Here we look at the pick of the best Opta Statistics from the whole World Cup.

World Cup: Team Statistics

• France won their second World Cup title having also won the competition in 1998.
• France became the first team to score four goals in a World Cup final since Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in 1970.

• Croatia are the first team to lose in their first ever appearance in a World Cup final since the Netherlands in 1974 (1-2 vs Germany).
• Russia’s victory against Saudi Arabia on MD1 means that the host nation has never lost their opening match in any of the 21 editions of the FIFA World Cup (W16 D6 L0).
• Russia became the first host nation to be eliminated at the quarter-final stage of a World Cup since Mexico in 1986.
• Croatia became just the second side to progress on a penalty shootout in consecutive knockout games in a World Cup tournament after Argentina in 1990 (v Yugoslavia and Italy).

• Brazil have been eliminated by a European nation in each of the last four editions of the World Cup (France 2006, Netherlands 2010, Germany 2014 and Belgium 2018).
• Brazil topped their group stage table for the 10th successive World Cup finals, last failing to do so in 1978.
• England have been eliminated in four of their five semi-finals at major tournaments, losing each of the last four in a row (Euro 1968 v Yugoslavia, World Cup 1990 v Germany, Euro 1996 v Germany and World Cup 2018 v Croatia).
• England won a penalty shoot-out at the World Cup for the first time following their match against Colombia in the last 16.

• Since reaching their first one in 1998, France have reached more World Cup finals than any other nation (3).
• France are only the second team to beat three different South American nations in a single World Cup tournament (Peru, Argentina, Uruguay), after the Netherlands in 1974.
• Uruguay were the first team to win all three of their World Cup group games without conceding a single goal since Argentina in 1998.
• In their match against Japan, Belgium became the first team to come from 2+ goals down to win a World Cup knockout round match within 90 minutes since Portugal beat DPR Korea 5-3 in the 1966 quarter-final.
• Mexico have now been eliminated in each of their last eight World Cup knockout matches – the longest ever streak of consecutive knockout eliminations in the competition (QF 1986 + last 16 1994 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 & 2018).

• Mexico have now played 57 games at World Cup finals tournaments – the most by a side never to have won the competition.
• Germany became the third successive World Cup reigning champions to be eliminated in the group stages after Spain in 2014 and Italy in 2010.

• This was only the second time that Germany have been eliminated from the First Round at the World Cup having last done so in 1938.

• Switzerland have never won a World Cup knockout match; suffering elimination in all seven matches, including their last four round of 16 games (in 1994, 2006, 2014 and 2018).
• On June 26th Peru won their first World Cup game for 40 years and 15 days, since beating Iran 4-1 in 1978; the fifth longest gap between victories in the competition.
• England scored nine goals from set pieces at the 2018 World Cup – the most by a team in a single World Cup tournament since 1966.
• England had six different players score for them in this tournament; their most ever in a single World Cup campaign.
• Belgium saw 10 different players score for them in this World Cup (excl. OGs); the joint-most for a team at a single World Cup alongside France in 1982 and Italy in 2006.
• Saudi Arabia’s win over Egypt saw them end a run of 12 World Cup games without a win (D2 L10), recording their first victory in the competition since June 1994 (1-0 v Belgium).
• Belgium registered their best finish in a World Cup tournament, finishing third – one better than their fourth-place finish in 1986.
• England’s fourth-place finish was their joint-second best World Cup finish, level with their fourth-place berth in 1990; their 1966 win is their only better performance at a World Cup tournament.

World Cup: Player Statistics

• Portugal talisman Cristiano Ronaldo is just the fourth player to score in four different World Cup tournaments (2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018) after Pele, Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose.
• Cristiano Ronaldo became the first European player in history to score in eight consecutive major tournaments (World Cup and European Championships).
• Cristiano Ronaldo is the oldest hat-trick scorer in World Cup history, with the Portuguese star aged 33 years and 130 days – the previous oldest was Rob Rensenbrink in June 1978 for the Netherlands against Iran (30y 335d).

• The Round of 16 meeting with Uruguay was Cristiano Ronaldo’s 38th game in World Cups/European Championships – no player has played in more across the two competitions (level with Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger).
• Neither Cristiano Ronaldo (six games) nor Lionel Messi (eight games) have scored a goal in a World Cup knockout match, with both failing to end their drought in this tournament.
• Since 1966, only Grzegorz Lato & Andrzej Szarmach (5 for Poland) and Michael Ballack & Miroslav Klose (5 for Germany) have combined for more World Cup goals than Edinson Cavani & Luis Suarez (4 for Uruguay).
• Rafael Marquez featured in his fifth World Cup finals tournament (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018), becoming just the third player to achieve this feat along with Mexico’s Antonio Carbajal (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962 and 1966) and Germany’s Lothar Matthäus (1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998).
• Mexico's Rafael Marquez (39y 139d) became the oldest outfield player to start a World Cup knockout match since Stanley Matthews (39y 145d), in 1954 for England v Uruguay.

• Against Russia in the Round of 16, Sergio Ramos made his 17th appearance for Spain at the World Cup in this game; a record for an outfield Spanish player and equalling the overall record held by goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
• Essam El-Hadary (45y 161d) broke the record for the oldest player to appear at a World Cup, with the Egyptian goalkeeper aged two years & 158 days older than Colombian Faryd Mondragón, who previously held the record. He also saved a penalty in this match for Egypt.
• Denis Cheryshev scored four goals at the 2018 World Cup - only Oleg Salenko (6 in 1994) has netted more in a single edition of the tournament for Russia (including USSR).
• Russia’s veteran defender Sergei Ignashevich became the oldest player to score an own goal at the World Cup, aged 38 years and 352 days when he did so against Spain.
• Russia’s Sergei Ignashevich also became the oldest ever player to score an own goal in a World Cup match (38y 352d).
• Against Argentina in the Round of 16, France’s Kylian Mbappe became the first teenager to score at least twice in a World Cup match since Pele netted twice for Brazil against Sweden in the 1958 final.

• Argentina’s Lionel Messi is the only player to have delivered an assist in each of the last four World Cup tournaments.
• Argentina’s Lionel Messi has played 756 minutes of football in World Cup knockout stage matches, but has failed to score a single goal.
• Jesus Gallardo's yellow card for Mexico versus Sweden after 15 seconds was the fastest shown in World Cup history.
• Excluding own goals, Kevin De Bruyne’s strike against Brazil saw him become the 100th different player to score at the 2018 World Cup finals.
• Harry Kane scored six goals for England in the 2018 tournament; the joint-most by an England player in a single World Cup campaign, following Gary Lineker in 1986.

• Following his goal against Colombia, Harry Kane became the first player to score in six consecutive England appearances since Tommy Lawton did so in 1939.
• Harry Kane was the first player to score a brace in his first two World Cup appearances since Poland's Grzegorz Lato in 1974.
• Kieran Trippier became the first player to score a direct free-kick for England at the World Cup since David Beckham in 2006 (against Ecuador).
• Dele Alli is the second youngest player to score for England at the World Cup (22y 87d), behind only Michael Owen (18y 190d against Romania in 1998).
• Ivan Perisic has been involved in 11 goals at major tournaments for Croatia (7 goals, 4 assists), more than any other player.
• Colombia's Yerry Mina scored three headed goals at the 2018 World Cup; the most by a player in a single tournament since Miroslav Klose for Germany in 2002 (5).
• Keisuke Honda is now the top-scoring Asian player in World Cup history, netting four goals in total for Japan.
• Kieran Tripper created 24 chances for England at the 2018 World Cup – a record for an England player since 1966, breaking Bobby Charlton’s total of 18 in 1966.
• Harry Kane scored six goals from six shots on target at the 2018 World Cup – the last player to score as many as six goals at a World Cup tournament while converting 100% of his shots on target was Jairzinho in 1970 for Brazil (7 goals from 7 shots on target).
• Eden Hazard was directly involved in seven goals at the World Cup (three goals, four assists); the joint- most of any Belgium player since 1966 (Jan Ceulemans also with seven
• Neymar and Coutinho created a total of 12 goal-scoring chances for each other, more than any other duo at the 2018 World Cup.
• France’s Kylian Mbappé (19y 207d) is the second youngest player to score in a World Cup final, after Pele for Brazil in 1958 (17y 249d).

• France’s Paul Pogba became the first Manchester United player to score in a World Cup final, and the first Premier League player to do so since Emmanuel Petit in 1998.
• Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic became the first ever player to score an own goal in a World Cup final.

• Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic is only the second player in World Cup history to score a goal for his team and an own goal in the same match, after the Netherlands’ Ernie Brandts against Italy in 1978.
• Croatia’s Ivan Perisic became only the second player to both score a goal, and concede a penalty in a World Cup final, after Marco Materazzi for Italy in 2006.
• Ivan Perisic has been directly involved in 11 goals at major tournaments (7 goals, 4 assists), more than any other Croatia player.

World Cup: Manager Statistics

• Oscar Tabarez became the fifth manager to take charge of the same country at four different World Cup finals (1990, 2010, 2014 and 2018), after Walter Winterbottom (England), Josef Herberger (Germany), Helmut Schon (Germany) and Lajos Baroti (Hungary).
• Didier Deschamps is the third person to win the World Cup as both a player and a manager, after Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer.

• Didier Deschamps became the first manager to lead France to the final of two major tournaments (EURO 2016 and World Cup 2018).
• Didier Deschamps has won 75% of his World Cup matches in charge of France (9/12), the highest percentage among all coaches to have managed at least 10 games in the competition.
• Gareth Southgate became just the third manager to take England to the semi-final stage of a World Cup tournament, following Sir Alf Ramsey in 1966 and Sir Bobby Robson in 1990.
• In his first World Cup as manager of Belgium, Roberto Martinez oversaw six wins from seven games; only Felipe Scolari won more matches in his first World Cup as a manager (7 in 2002) than the Spaniard.
• 23 managers took charge of their first World Cup games at the 2018 tournament, with Croatia’s Zlatko Dalic registering the highest finish among this group (Runners-Up).
• Oscar Tabarez is now one of just six managers to take charge of 20+ games at the World Cup finals, alongside Mario Zagallo (20), Bora Milutinovic (20), Felipe Scolari (21), Carlos Alberto Parreira (23) and Helmut Schon (25).
• Joachim Low became the third consecutive manager of the reigning World Cup champions to see his side eliminated in the group stage, following Vicente Del Bosque in 2014 (Spain) and Marcelo Lippi in 2010 (Italy).
• Stanislav Cherchesov won as many games in his first World Cup as Russia manager (2) as each of their previous three managers in the competition combined (Fabio Capello 0 in 2014, Oleg Romantsev 1 in 2002, Pavel Fyorodov Sadyrin 1 in 1994), also becoming the first to lead them out of the World Cup group stage since the break up of the Soviet Union.
• Although they were eliminated on penalties by hosts Russia, Fernando Hierro ended his tenure as Spain manager having not lost any of his four matches in charge (W1 D3); only the manager he replaced at the start of the tournament, Julien Lopetegui, has managed more games for Spain without ever losing (20).
• Tite was the 15th different manager to take charge of Brazil at a World Cup tournament; the most of any nation in the competition’s history.
• Despite their elimination in the Round of 16 against Croatia (2-3 on penalties), Age Hareide led Denmark through their first ever unbeaten World Cup campaign (P4 W1 D3 L0).

World Cup: Random Statistics

• July 1st 2018 was just the second day in which two World Cup games (Spain v Russia, Croatia v Denmark) both went to a penalty shootout – the other was June 21, 1986 (France v Brazil, Mexico v Germany).
• This was the first ever World Cup to see all competing teams score at least two goals, with Panama being the final team to complete the collection (a goal each against England and Tunisia).
• 43% of the goals scored at the 2018 World Cup came from set-piece situations (73 of 169), more than at any other edition of the competition since 1966.
• There were 22 penalties scored and 29 awarded at the 2018 World Cup, the most in any edition of the competition.

• There were nine winning goals scored in the 90th minute or later at the 2018 World Cup (excluding extra-time), more than at any other edition of the tournament.

• Fakhreddine Ben Youssef's goal for Tunisia against Panama was the 2500th scored in World Cup finals history.

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Page last updated at 1850 BST on 15/07/2018

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